LONG BEACH - Mayor Bob Foster and three City Council members are starting plans to submit a ballot initiative next year that would roll back nonpublic safety employee compensation to 2010 levels.

The measure, to be requested at Tuesday's City Council meeting in an item written by Councilman James Johnson, targets a spring special election and caps compensation for the employees in 2014 and 2015.

According to a memorandum, the changes - if approved - would save $29 million per year overall, and $9.4 million annually in the general fund, heading off budget cuts and resulting in restorations of services for residents such as public safety, libraries, parks and infrastructure improvements.

The savings almost equal the $28.7 million jump in employee pension costs since 2007, from $69.4 million citywide then to $98.1 million in 2012, the document said.

Additionally, most public safety employees have received a 15 percent salary increase since September 2008, while city managers agreed to a wage freeze in the same period, said officials.

The aggressive move toward the ballot box has been expected after the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents more than 3,600 city employees, spurned a pension reform proposal last month.

Officials estimated the deal would have saved $3.9 million in the general fund in 2013, and $12.2 million across all funds, by increasing union members' share of retirement costs and upping the retirement age for future employees while lowering their benefits. Present workers would have been granted a raise to pay for the higher pension cost share.

Though he has been an ardent advocate for pension reform, Johnson's request notes that compensation reduction goals can be achieved through not only changes to retirement benefits, but also by limiting overtime hours, lessening specialized skill pays and modifying salaries.

The City Council last week approved a budget enacting $12.9 million in structural downsizing. Long Beach has balanced a decade-long string of deficits and expects further shortfalls in 2014 and 2015.

"The bottom line is, we need to reduce our costs so the money going in equals the money going out so we don't cut services residents depend on," Johnson said in an interview. "We need to stop that cycle."

Police and firefighters are excluded from his request because their unions agreed to significant pension givebacks last year, Johnson said.

Fiscal planners estimated the reforms, which were similar to what was offered to the IAM, would save Long Beach $100 million by 2022.

The compensation measure to be presented Tuesday studiously avoids making immediate changes since the IAM contract expires on Sept. 30, 2013.

"We're going to take our time, but we are going to make sure this gets on the ballot to realize the savings for (2014)," Johnson said.

If not, he added, "The results will simply be another round of cuts, followed by another round of cuts, and on and on until we hardly recognize the city that's left."